Boothroyd Dewhurst to host 2014 DFMA forum

Wakefield, R.I. – Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc. will host the twenty-ninth annual International Forum on Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) on June 4-5, 2014 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Providence-Warwick, R.I., USA. Presenters at this year’s forum will discuss how DFMA promotes Lean and Value Engineering through simplification, leading to improvements in design, manufacturing and business profits. 

 

“Starting in early design, simplification helps engineers establish a product structure that is immediately more multifunctional and cost efficient. Those elegant designs carry far-reaching benefits, allowing managers to conceive and construct streamlined supply chains – from process development and assembly, to inventory monitoring and demand fulfillment,” said John Gilligan, president of Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc.

 

“This year we wanted to demonstrate not only how DFMA, Lean, and Value Engineering are legs of the same optimization effort, but how our software and methodologies help development teams initiate world-class approaches to the end-to-end business of making and supplying great products,” says Gilligan.

 

“The user data is clear,” says Nick Dewhurst, executive vice president of Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc.  “When manufacturers undertake DFMA product simplification and cost estimating up-front, they are better able to realize cost avoidance downstream in post-manufacturing functions. These big picture savings are what allow manufacturers to pursue effective “Build Where You Sell” strategies and reshore production back to large, domestic markets.”

 

Forum speakers will include the Reshoring Initiative, Dynisco, and other industry leaders and universities. This year’s keynote address will be delivered by author Richard Schonberger and will examine the critical relationship between DFMA and Lean practices. James Bolton of Whirlpool Corp. and president of SAVE International will conduct an independent, pre-conference lecture and hands-on workshop on June 3 that will introduce participants to how functions, function analysis, and FAST diagrams relate to DFMA.

 

DFMA, a registered trademark of Boothroyd Dewhurst Inc., helps structure a team’s knowledge and guide collaboration efforts from the concept stage onward to create feature-rich products at less cost. It does this by providing comparative “should cost” estimates for manufacturing processes and materials, and by targeting opportunities for product simplification. 

 

DFMA methodologies and software tools make it possible to evaluate, estimate, and reduce the manufacturing cost of a product in the design phase through product simplification and cost estimation. 

 

The Forum offers insights and solutions to managers, financial decision-makers, design engineers, manufacturing engineers, purchasing personnel, and supply-chain experts interested in benefitting from up-front product development.